Jill Duggar Dillard has announced that she and her husband Derick Dillard will be releasing a book called Counting the Cost. The book will feature “the unedited truth about the Duggars” who became famous through TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting.
“Jill Duggar and her husband Derick are finally ready to share their story, revealing the secrets, manipulation, and intimidation behind the show that remained hidden from their fans,” reads a description of the book, which is due out in January 2024.
The upcoming book will examine the warning signs that Duggar became aware of in her conservative independent Baptist upbringing after tying the knot with Derick in 2014.
“For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members — they weren’t willing to rock the boat. But now they’re raising a family of their own, and they’re done with the secrets,” Counting the Cost’s description reads. “Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a remarkable story of the power of the truth and is a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.”
The couple wrote on Instagram that the book “is meant to reflect a story that has been difficult, yet hopeful.”
“The challenges we have faced, including lack of respect for boundaries, greed, manipulation, and betrayal, are not that much different than what many people in our audience have faced,” they continued. “However, 15+ years of reality television, undergirded by secrecy and lies, is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire of our struggle.”
The parents of three shared that “time, tears, truth, and therapy” helped them heal from “our painful journey as part of the reality-show-filming Duggar family.” “Though we would have never chosen this path, and it has cost us dearly, we want to use our voice to show others that there is hope beyond the pain,” they wrote.
Jinger, Jill’s younger sister, released her book “Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear” in January.
“This is a book about me and my spiritual journey, a journey of disentangling truth from lies,” Jinger, 29, said in a November YouTube video announcing the memoir. “In it, I share stories from my life — stories that nobody saw while the TV cameras were rolling: stories of fear and uncertainty but also of discovery and hope.”
Jinger said that while her “faith is still intact … it has changed.”
“I wrote this book for any of you who are wanting to honestly examine your beliefs without abandoning God,” she explained.
Jill announced her book two days before Amazon’s release of the Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets docuseries, which investigates the Duggar family’s connection to The Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP).
“There are so many thousands of families that have been hurt by this and have not had a voice, not for lack of trying, for many, many, many years,” Olivia Crist, one of the program’s executive producers, told PEOPLE. “I mean, hope, the takeaway is really hearing the survivors, hearing what they’ve been through. And then, I think also for people still in, trapped in a fundamentalist or IBLP group, that hopefully this is a chance for them to say, ‘Hey, it is possible to get out and that they’re not alone.'”
